1877. ] The Sand Darter. 87 
Our. aquarium had been arranged for the convenience of,our old 
etheostomoid friends, and the bottom was thickly covered with 
stones, among which a small fish might easily hide. Several days 
passed after the introduction of the first Plewrolepis that sur- 
vived the change of water, when it was noticed that it had dis- 
appeared. Careful search among the stones and around the 
geode only made it the more certain that it had gone, and in- 
creased our wonder as to the way, for surely it had not been 
eaten, nor had it jumped out, unless like Ariel it could assume 
a “ shape invisible.” Finally, after retracing every inch of the 
ground, there was discovered under the nose of Boleosoma, which 
was standing as usual on its hands and tail, the upper edge of a 
caudal fin, and on each side of Boly’s tail appeared a little black 
eye set in a yellow frame. Pleurolepis was buried! Was he 
dead? Slowly one eye was closed in a darter’s inimitable way, 
for they can outwink all animals in creation except owls, and 
the touch of a finger on its tail showed that it had lost none of 
its activity. It was quite improbable that it had been accident- 
ally buried so completely, a small spot, therefore, was cleared of 
stones, leaving the hard white sand exposed, and we awaited 
developments. 
There for days we watched it closely, only to learn that it 
could bury itself with great celerity, for it was never caught in 
e act. Our patience was at last rewarded, however, for as we 
came out to breakfast one morning it put its nose, that we now 
Generic Characters. Body nearly cylindrical, very slender, the depth being con- 
tained six to eight times in the length of the body, to base of the caudal; the breadth 
of the body about the same as the depth; head long, pointed, the upper jaw longest ; 
lateral line very distinct, complete; scales thin, small, punctate, especially above, 
with fine black dots, far apart and deeply imbedded, obscure on the back, but = 
ally present; wanting on the belly, readily evident only along the lateral line and on 
the opercles ; fins rather low (as compared with other darters), the dorsal fins well 
separated ; anal spines two ; intermaxillaries projectile, the skin of the upper lip not 
continuous with that of the forehead ; teeth minute, on jaws and vomer ; mouth com- 
paratively wide, much as in Etheostoma ; branchiostegals six, their membrane broadly 
connected across isthmus. 
Specific Characters. Head four to four and half in length of body, without caudal ; 
eye large, rather high up, its diameter a trifle less than length of snout, form ng 
about one fourth of the length of the head; iris gilt. Body pinkish-white, or faintly 
olivaceous, perfectly pellucid in life; a series of small squarish olive blotches, lustrous 
Steel blue in life, along the back and another on each side, these connected by a gilt 
line. Fin rays: D. x. 9; A. ii. 8; first dorsal longer and lower than second, which 
18 smaller than the anal fin. Length two to three inches. ; 3 
Habitat. Ohio Valley, Youghiogheny R. (Cope), Eastern Ohio (Dr. Kirtland’s 
Coll.), White R., Ind. (Jordan and Copeland), frequenting sandy bottoms of clear 
Streams, 
Pcecilichthys vitreus, Cope (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 1870, p. 263), probably belongs 
to this genus, 
